BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties

Subject: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 11:46 PM

I could not tell you one wrestler today. I do know that it is very popular. But age brings me back to names that I grew up with as television started to flow in our community. Some of which were:

Sky Low Low
Yukon Eric
Whipper Billy Watson
Dick the Bull Dog Bower
Edouard Carpentier
Gene Kiniski
Little Beaver
Killer Kowalski
Mad Dog (Vachon)
And all those other great heroes of wrestling. Who Do you remember?

What a time it was. The time in believing and knowing there was a Santa Clause.

Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bobad
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 11:56 PM

Sweet Daddy Siki
Chief Don Eagle
Johnny Rougeau

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:08 AM

Brute Bernard
Fighting Harada
Mark Lewelin
Roy Heffernon
Mario Milano
Dominic Denuchi...

Yeah, black & white TV, knowing it was BS, but believing it anyway. I think it must be very different today.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:17 AM

Sure was fun.
And don't forget the moves we learned while wrestling with our buddies.
The Boston Crab
The Full Nelson
The Sleeper
The Foot Over Toe Hold
The Abdominal Grip

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:18 AM

Sweet Daddy Siki. Sure do remember how I wanted his ass kicked

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:22 AM

John, I don't think that we knew that color would come into the picture. Black and white was great. I even remember staring at the test pattern waiting for the show to begin.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:27 AM

What was that maneuver called where you hoist your opponent up onto your shoulder and then drop him so his coccyx lands on you knee?
Always a crowd pleaser

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:36 AM

The Atomic Drop. I think that's what it was called.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:37 AM

Was that maybe the power driver? Not sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:41 AM

Your right John I do beleive it was calld that.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: mrdux
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 01:10 AM

Haystacks Calhoun
Dick the Bruiser
The Crusher
Verne Gagne
Gorilla Monsoon
Bobo Brazil
The Sheik

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:28 AM

Those names sure bring up better pictures than the UK wrestlers of the same era (well, OK, 1970's)

Mick McManus - hated his ears being pulled.
Jackie 'TV' Pallo
Giant Haystacks - not so much a wrestler as a human crusher.
Big Daddy - also known by his real name of Shirley Crabtree. His brother was a wrestling referee and a midget in comparison.
Kendo Nagasaki was the closest we got to 'exotic' in the UK... never took his mask off, so every opponent tried to rip it off. One did and the nation collectively screamed at the TV to get him to put it back on!

Wrestling was always the first item on 'World of Sport' which went out around Saturday lunchtime. Fish fingers and chips, to the accompaniment of little old ladies screaming vague obscenities and violent threats to men three times their size and in shorts. Ah... happy days!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: gnu
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 08:04 AM

The Beast.

The skinny... years ago... long hair, beard... speaking Russian or ?? the announcers would say... he was mad! out of control! to be feared!!!

One Saturday night, we were invited for supper at my Uncle Gerry's. I was a young lad and you can imagine how taken aback I was when I entered the living room and he was sitting on the couch with an Alpine (beer) in his hand and speaking perfect French and English. He was a complete gentleman.

My old man always told me it was "fake", but not quite like walking into my uncle's house.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 08:18 AM

I would think that this encounter would be both shocking and disappointing. As well as rewarding in some way. I recall our local priest taking a couple car loads of us alter boys to the Halifax Forum(No jokes here please as the priest was one hell of a great man.). I still can remember one particular old lady shouting at the bad guy in the ring. I think she was more entertaining than the wrestlers.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 08:36 AM

The Tolos Brothers, John and Chris--perenniel (sp?) tag-team champions or former champions, depending on whose turn it was to be current champion
Abdullah the Butcher--ex-football player with a mad mullah act: "ME. LIKE. BLOOD. ME. LIKE. GO GO GO!!!"
Eric Frohlich--built like a gymnast, fought barefoot, no histrionics, the guy who showed what wrestling would be like without the show business

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: gnu
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 09:55 AM

Beer! You hit the nail on the head!

My old man used to watch the wrestling on TV only FOR the audience. People screaming and contorting as if THEY were in the ring (or out). Especially the women. I recall an incident specifically. A little old lady got a hold on The Beast's hair at ringside while he was down and she would not let go, screaming all the time in Shaque (a mix of Acadian French and Anglaise for the those who). He laughed about it for days.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bankley
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 10:17 AM

"Nature Boy" Buddy Rodgers and his 'figure 4' leglock
Don Leo Jonathan...
Hans Schmitt, who was a Quebecois by the name of Lemay
Billy Two Rivers.. the Mohawk, trained by Don Eagle's dad

Don Eagle aka Donald Bell was champ for awhile in the 50's, popularized the Mohawk haircut. Later on he suffered severe injuries in the ring, but remarkably made a comeback. He died in the 60's from a gunshot. It was 'officially' a suicide but there were those who suspected that it was a mob hit. One of his two sons is John Kim Bell, a 'tuxedo' musician/composer who founded the "Aboriginal Achievement Awards" in Canada. He's still the CEO of that organization, I think. HQ in Ottawa.. They have their ceremonies yearly, usually broadcast nationally on CBC.... Big Stuff

The reason that I know this is that..... I rented a house for a few years from Don Eagle's father, 'War Eagle' aka John Joseph Bell. He was an old wrestler, boxer, trainer and promoter whose ring prime was in the 1930's and 40's... so he got Don into the business.
Mr. Joe Bell love to tell stories about as much as I liked to hear them. He had a twinkle in his eyes, disarming smile, scars, big ol cauliflower ears and a cane with a sword in it. He had a few tales to go with that walking stick, as well... the real deal..... like the time some robbers pulled a knife on him outside an arena in Frisco after a match. They wanted the cash made that night. Joe feigned a swing a them with his cane. He said. "One of them did just what I wanted and grabbed the end of it. So I pulled the sword out, saying, 'my knife is bigger than yours', and ran him through one of his arm muscles. Down he went. The others gathered him up fast and took off out of there. Joe kept the money, and their blade and waited a bit longer for Don to show up...... a day in the life....

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bobad
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 10:36 AM

Don Eagle worked for a time at Dominion Bridge, the steel fabrication company in Lachine, where my father also worked and knew him from there.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 10:53 AM

I dunno' how you can talk about the early days of "Big Time Wrestling" without mentioning Gorgeous George. Before there was Buddy Rogers or Ric Flair, leading the way for an entire crop of over-the-top characters, there was Gorgeous George. He perfected his act before there was TV and when TV came along he was ready. Oh gawd he was ready. The outrageous robes and tights, entrance music, rose petals spread at his feet, the bright blonde curly hair, his valets and attendants spraying down the ring, refs, and opponents with his Chanel "No.10".............he was totally outrageous and he heralded in the gimmick wrestlers unlike the many at the time who considered themselves "serious" wrestlers.

A lot of pro football players wrestled back then as well. Pro ball didn't pay all that well and most players had off season jobs. Alex Karras for instance toured with Dick the Bruiser.

There were a few tragic cases as well. After being re-tried, found not guilty, and released from prison after 10 years, Dr. Sam Sheppard had no success in trying to re-enter his former life as a Doctor.   Already in his mid forties he got into pro wrestling. He was also strung out on drugs. He married the teenage daughter of his "manager" but died soon thereafter. Nothing in there for the State of Ohio to be proud of.

I too watched back then for the entertainment, but I really got hooked on it in the early 80's, fascinated by the spectacle. I would have loved to write the scripts! Watching the crowds became my main focus. I have said here before that if I were going to write a masters thesis in Sociology I would do it on the lockstep rise and decline of Big Time TV wrestling and Big Time TV religion. I think they may have shared a sizable portion of the same audience.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 10:58 AM

"The Great Baldini" He always used to get hit in the head and it made his eyes go crosswise.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:11 AM

Great story Bankley and Spaw. And your right Spaw, it would make for an interesting sociology thesis.

Who was the Oriental fellow who would throw salt on the 4 sides of the ring then over his shoulders?

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bankley
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:18 AM

Tara Sakuro , I believe.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:19 AM

I remember that my granny, Annie Belton (d. 1966) used to love watching the wrestling on UK telly. At moments of high excitement she used to abandon any pretence of lady-like decorum and shout, "bite his bum!"

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:28 AM

Here are 2 more from the 50s, early 60s:

Chico Garcia - Mexican bad guy with mustache and HUGE stomach.

Man Mountain Montana - Same general approach as Haystack Calhoun. Montana was enormous, dressed in farmer overalls, defeated opponents by simply falling on them. His body was so huge that it made his head look about the size of a grapefruit in comparison.

There was some good guy wrestler that me and my friends always cheered for...nice handsome looking guy with a "good guy" short haircut...and I cannot recall his name at all now. Just goes to show, it's mostly the spectacular or weird bad guy wrestlers that people remember.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:30 AM

That brings to mind when my Aunt Susan was visiting and it was here first time to watch T.V. She kept looking where the wrestler went when the camera man focused else where. She would get up and look behind the television.

I don't think that was him Bankley.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:34 AM

Surprisingly there are a number of video clips from those days on You Tube.
I remember the Montana man but the Mexican fails to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:06 PM

I only flirted with watching wrestling for a couple of years around age 13 or so. A few names I recall are:

Eddie Graham (good guy)
The Great Malenko (bad guy)
The Von Braun Brothers (bad guys)
Hiro Matsudo (bad guy: used illegal judo chops while ref wan't looking)

They may have been unknown outside of Florida, since I gather wrestling promotion in those days was a more regional than national affair.

Looking back, it's hilarious the way some of the "bad guys" capitalized on Cold War propagana to enhance their evil images. The Great Malenko was supposedly Russian, and the Von Braun Brothers were supposedly from East Germany. I don't follow wrestling today, but I doubt there are any bad guy wrestlers who've adopted Islamic terrorist personae.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bankley
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:52 PM

Beer, I remember the guy that you mean. Used to rub 'ceremonial' salt into his opponents eyes when the going got rough. I know it wasn't David Suzuki either....

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:12 PM

That's the guy. Are you still with the name of Tara Sakuro?

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:16 PM

I was hitch-hiking down Interstate-5 and got a ride from Haystack Calhoun one time.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:24 PM

The Fabulous Kangaroos (Roy Heffernan & ?)
Dangerous Danny McShain
Fritz Von Wallach
Skull Murphy
Cowboy Rocky Lee
Pat O'Connor
Antonino Rocco
Miguel Perez
Ludwig Von Krupp
Jackie Nichols
The Stevens Brothers (Ray & Don)
Angelo Savoldi
Arnold Skaaland
The Great Scott
                                                         SOL

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bobad
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:37 PM

Is Heigo "Animal" Hamaguchi the guy you're looking for Beer?

There's an article on him here.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Chip2447
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:52 PM

Late 60's Midwest here;
Bulldog Bob Brown
Harley Race
Rufus R Brown
Danny Little Bear
Baron Von Rafske (?)

All Star wrestling was a Saturday night event, which was a lead in to Space 1999 and Star Trek

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 03:06 PM

That Dusty Rhodes guy wrestled forever. It seemed like he never changed and went on for 30 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 03:10 PM

Not him Bobad.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 03:23 PM

Dusty Rhodes.............My brother-in-law (Bob) lives in Roswell, GA., a classy Atlanta 'burb........Well off family, went to Annapolis then Georgia Tech, is an aerospace engineer with Lockheed and works for what's left of their skunkworks, almost 30 years on the job, makes a ton of money........a smart guy (but a typical engineer that would spend three weeks organizing a two car motorcade).

So the family is at dinner one evening in some restaurant and Dusty comes in. Bob is speechless and in awe. Karolyn is saying, "For God's sake Bob, he's a fat old wrestler!" But poor Bob is in a trance and all he can say is, "Gee, Dusty Rhodes." Actually, quite a few celebs and sports figures live close to them and they see many of them all the time, but Dusty was too much for poor Bob.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: GUEST,Mariner
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 05:32 PM

How about the original "Big O" Bob Orton ?

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 06:12 PM

AAAAARRRRGGGH! OOOMPH! SMACK!!! UGH!!!!

Here's a video of a grudge match between Joe Leduc and Dusty Rhodes, with Haystack Calhoun as the Ref, and a bunch of other wrestlers running interference!!!! Catch the marvelously tacky staggering around the ring rubber-legged routine of Dusty Rhodes as he is supposedly pounded into near helplessness by the enraged Joe Leduc!

AAAAARRRRGGGH! OOOMPH! SMACK!!! UGH!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 06:17 PM

Lord Athol Layton.

Pampiro Firpo.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: eddie1
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 06:34 PM

When I was a kid, my dad took me a couple of times to see wrestling at "The Eldorado" in Leith, Edinburgh. This was in the days when pubs in Scotland closed at 10.00pm. I could never understand how, no matter how long the earlier bouts lasted, the last one always finished at 9.45!

Eddie

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 07:24 PM

I regularly attended wrestling matches in Madison Square Garden during the Antonino Rocco era. I also went to the St. Nicholas Arena in Manhattan and the Eastern Parkway Area in Brooklyn. The crowd was 90% Hispanic and the promoters played the racial card to the hilt. When Rocco and Miguel Perez teamed up against some of the bad guys like Dick The Bruiser and Buddy Rogers, they would sell out the old Madison Square Garden with 21,000 plus (standing room only). There was also an obviously gay wrestler, Ricky Starr who wore ballet slippers as part of his act. When he fought Rocco (who wrestled barefoot), they sold out RFK Stadium (at that time Griffiths Stadium) with close to 50,000 people.

                                                 SOL

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Riginslinger
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 07:25 PM

And then there's Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 07:46 PM

I never trusted any of 'em after Lou Thesz & Strangler Lewis. Georgeous George didn't fool me a bit....and it's been all downhill from there.

(and I think it was Man Mountain Dean)

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 08:31 PM

I loved big time rtestling, and between '64-'66, I was glued to the TV every friday night for what in the SF Bay Area was called "National All-Star Wrestling," broadcast live on a local station, KTVU. The announcer was Walt Harris. I went a couple of times to be in the studio audience, when I was 11, 12. During a commercial break, one of the studio men had to tell me and a friend to stop yelling so much. however, there were these regulars, these elderly women in the front row, who were calling out the most vicious stuff: "Break his arm!" was typical. There's an excuse for a kid to take it so seriously, but, man, these older folks....

The heroes and villains were often, but not always, divided by race. Japanese wrestlers were villains, most Mexicans were heroes. My personal heroes were Pepper Gomez and, second to him, Bearcat Wright. Chief villains were Kinji Shibuya, Ray Stevens, and Stevens's tag team partner, Pat Patterson. Stevens and Patterson were bleach blonde, pot-bellied, and Stevens had a running feud with Pepper Gomez. Then there was the designated loser to the villains, who was there to build up the "championship" match to be held later at SF's "Cow Palace." Larry Williams took in that role. Then there was the "ringside doctor." His only role was to stand up from his table when a villain smashed a hero's head into it.

No matter where these matches were held, it was always the same basic script: the tag team villian distracts the referee while his partner "cheats." Everyone is screaming at the ref to turn around, but of course he is oblivious. The villain takes over the mike from the announcer during the "interviews."
Then there was midget wrestling: little Beaver (with a Mohawk haircut)...can't remember the other midget wrestlers.

These days there's hardly a distinction between heroes and voillians, it seems. Gone are the days of the pot-bellies, the local broadcasts, the shows at the Cow Palace. It was great show business, but it was obvious that these underpaid wrestlers, in a dangerous business, were very good athletes.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 08:35 PM

and I'd love to see ANY of those TV piles of steroids & swagger get in the rings with one of the Olympic Greco-Roman champions.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 08:49 PM

Chanteyranger, sure do remember Bearcat Wright. Perrer Gomez not sure.
I don't imagine they made much money but they sure could entertain us.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Nick E
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 09:31 PM

I am at the 70's end of the timeline for this thread, but I lived in NYC as a 10year old and hooked up a coat hanger to the UHF antenae so I could watch "Luche Libre" from a spanish language station in Paterson New Jersy. 47 or Quatente & siete...There was also "Championship Wrestiling From Geogia hosted with by Gordon Soeli.
I did see something real once though....
Superfly Snooka, held in the suplex by Colonel De Beers who is standing on the top rope, dropped superfly to the gym floor on his head. Never heard from DeBeers Again, Snooka was out for a year. Steroid rage I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Little Hawk
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 10:43 PM

There definitely was a Man Mountain Dean, Bill, but I never saw him. The guy I saw in action was Man Mountain Montana. "Montana", by the way, means "mountain" in Spanish, so he had a kind of redundant name.

The most bizarre thing that ever happened in wrestling, I'd say, was Andy Kaufman's wrestling career, during which he did everything possible to infuriate the wrestling audience, and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. He wanted to be the greatest "bad guy" wrestler ever. So first he started by wrestling only women...and insulting them outrageously to boot...that got a lot of people mad. Then he morphed that into insulting the entire population of the Deep South. That got people so mad that his life was in danger. He had a lot of help (secretly) from his chief opponent, Jerry Lawler, the "King of Memphis Wrestling". Lawler and Kaufmann had planned the entire soap opera from start to finish (as always seems to be the case in professional wrestling) and they certainly succeeded in raising a lot of hell and selling a lot of tickets. What a hoot!

Here's the whole crazy story:

Andy Kaufman vs the world!

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: Beer
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:04 PM

That is one hell of a find Little Hawk.
Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Wrestling in the 50/60/early 70ties
From: bankley
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 11:16 PM

I have a buddy that used to do some ring promoting in Ontario.... he hung out from time to time with a lot of characters including Andre the Giant.... he asked Andre if he ever took a drink... Andre said 'Sure', 'well, how much does it take for you to get a good buzz?' Andre answered "Usually 96 beers"..... didn't quite hit the 100, but who would argue .....